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SpaceX is set to launch Friday evening from Florida, flying an enhanced version of its Falcon 9 rocket for the first time.
Elon Musk's rocket company will begin the livestream about 20 minutes before the launch from Kennedy Space Center, targeting a liftoff time of 4:14 p.m. ET. The launch was originally scheduled for Thursday, but an automated system halted the countdown less than a minute before the engines fired up.
This is the inaugural launch for SpaceX's new variation of its Falcon 9 rocket, called "Block 5." After evolving Falcon 9 over nearly a decade, with upgrades between every launch, SpaceX anticipates this will be the final version of a workhorse rocket that already completed more launches in 2017 than any other commercial vehicle.
Being able to launch, land and relaunch with minimal refurbishment between flights has been a central focus for SpaceX. The company has become quite successful at landing the largest part of the rocket — known as the first stage or booster. But it has yet to complete more than two flights with the same Falcon 9 booster. Block 5 is set to change that.
"Block 5 is capable of at least 100 flights before being retired," Musk told reporters on a prelaunch conference call.
Musk expects each Block 5 to be able to launch 10 or more times before needing major refurbishment. He said SpaceX will have "30 to 50" of the Block 5 rockets in its fleet. Musk added, however, that the number of rockets SpaceX will produce "totally depends" on how many "customers insist on launching a new rocket."
The new rocket type comes with several upgrades, Musk said, making it "significantly easier to produce." Block 5 has more powerful engines, more resilient hardware to survive the harsh conditions of re-entering the atmosphere and landing, less weight (notably through its unpainted components, such as the black interstage) and a more easily produced structure.
Block 5 arrives just as SpaceX is on pace to shatter its record 18 successful launches completed last year. With three more missions completed at this point than the same time in 2017 — including the debut of Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in the world — SpaceX is aiming for about 30 launches this year, according to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell.
The debut mission will launch Bangabandhu Satellite-1, a telecommunications satellite for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. The new satellite will expand communications and broadband coverage to Bangladesh, as well as to India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia.
After pushing the satellite and Falcon 9's upper stage out of the Earth's lower atmosphere, the booster will return to land on the SpaceX autonomous ship in the Atlantic about 8 minutes after liftoff.
